Description

SY 19 NE FARWAY 3/60 Boycombe Farmhouse - 22.2.55 - II* Farmhouse, former manor house. Late C16, carefully renovated circa 1980. Local flint rubble with Beerstone ashlar dressings and detail; stone rubble stacks with ashlar quoins and plastered (maybe Beerstone ashlar or brick) chimneyshafts; slate roof, formerly thatch. Plan: apparently a single phase 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south- east built down a gentle hillslope. Uphill at the left (south-west) end is an inner room parlour with projecting front lateral stack and a projecting rear newel stair turret (disused) which also includes a garderobe turret serving the first floor chambers. The hall has a projecting front lateral stack and its own projecting rear newel stair turret. Below the passage is a narrow unneated service end room. There is evidence that this was once divided by an axial partition into 2 small service rooms, probably buttery and pantry. 3 of the original 4 first floor bed chambers were heated. The house has apparently been 2 storeys from the beginning. C19 rear porch and leanto woodshed. Good interior: irregular 3-window front. Ground floor right (the service end) has a C20 hardwood casement containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. All the rest are original Beerstone windows with hollow-chamfered mullions, Tudor arch-headed Tudor arch-headed lights and sunken spandrels. They contain rectangular panes of leaded glass (some of them very old) and iron-framed casements. They are 3 lights except for the hall which has 4 lights. The ground floor ones have hoodmoulds. The passage front doorway is right of centre and now contains a C19 part-glazed 6-panel door. The front is dominated by the 2 large front stacks which have weathered offsets. The roof is gable-ended. Windows around the other sides are mostly original and similar to those on the front. Exceptional interior: and remarkably well-preserved for the most part. The passage and service end were most affected by the C19 alterations. The end room here had been converted to 3 storeys in the C19 but circa 1980 were restored to the original 2 storeys and the first floor is now carried on circa 1980 elm beams; chamfered with straight cut stops. Also in the C19 both sides of the passage were rebuilt with brick. However original head beams were left each side proving that both were originally similar oak plank-and-muntin screens with moulded muntins; the hall one at least moulded both sides. Both also included 2 doorways. The hall one has been carefully reproduced. The doorways have been given Tudor arch heads on the evidence of a similar original head which was the right size and was found propping up the C19 staircase. The hall is most impressive. The fireplace is Beerstone ashlar with an oak lintel and unusually richly-moulded surround. The ceiling is a fine 16-panel ceiling of richly-moulded intersecting beams. The panels are not plastered but the exposed joists are plain. At the lower end, just below the ceiling, the headbeam of the screen has a richly-moulded cornice. The upper end crosswall is small-panelled oak framing. The arched head of the doorway was rebuilt circa 1980. The rear newel stair had been rebuilt in the C19 and was rebuilt again circa 1980. The round- headed alcove alongside also dates circa 1980. One original feature here maybe unique in Devon. The soffits of the oak lintels over the window embrasures have carved reeding, the front one with a band of twisted bead and ribbon on the inner corner. The front parlour window lintel is similar and this one has a double bend of twisted bead and ribbon. However the fireplace, though similar to the one in the hall, is not so richly moulded and there is a 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling with plastered panels. The stair is disused and there is a semi-circular alcove there. On the end wall there is a wall painting dated 1744 featuring an old bearded man shearing a sheep with a cross behind. Below is written: "Lent but a year now in ye month of June The Bale (sic) pated farmer sings his tune Go, Tom, fetch home ye sheep we will them shear This day will make amend for all ye year With pleasing labour now he take from sheep His long lent Fleece in plenteous heap Month makes ye House run round yet all be joys But grateful tributes to the Diety." The poem has been retouched. On the first floor passage and service end chambers are closed trusses and the roof is carried on a series of clean side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. The service end, hall and inner room chambers all have original small Beerstone fireplaces with oak lintels and chamfered surrounds. So many first floor fireplaces is very luxurious for a house of this date. Because of the 2 stairs there was probably no original doorway between hall and parlour chambers. However, both these chambers share the garderobe. The doorways to it are original but only the hall one still has its orginal cranked head. Inside the garderobe is complete with its double seater oak bench. Outside, at ground floor level, there is a blocked doorway from the garderobe cess pit. In the inner room chamber the Beerstone reveals of window in the end wall contain ancient graffitis, one of them a coat of arms including the name R. Morse and dated 1619 and another an erect penis! Boycombe is an exceptionally well-preserved late C16 house, both externally and internally. The standard of craftsmanship is particularly good. The one thing missing is a kitchen. It must have been in a detached building close to the house, probably to rear. No trace of it remains today. The earliest documentary references date from 1248, 1330, 1377 and 1564. Source: Devon SMR. A good report on the house accompanied by a measured plan by Commander E. H. D. Williams and dated October 1979 is deposited in the N.M.R. Williams dates the house circa 1500.

Listing NGR: SY1671496166

External Links

• Wikidata Q17547373

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